Some people inspire us through extraordinary achievements. Others inspire us simply by showing us what becomes possible when we stay deeply committed to relationship.
Amy Dojahn does both.
A licensed professional counselor for more than three decades, Amy is on the verge of earning her Advanced Natural Lifemanship Certification—a distinction achieved by only a small number of practitioners. Throughout her journey, while navigating life in a wheelchair, she has continually adapted, learned, and grown alongside her horses, demonstrating that meaningful connection is never determined by physical ability.
Horses Were Always Home
Diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis at the age of three, Amy learned early that life would require adaptation. She shared that pain, surgeries, and changing physical abilities were simply part of growing up.
If there was one place where she experienced something entirely different, it was with horses.
“When I was on the horse,” she says, “I didn’t feel disabled. I could just go and be free.”
Her Shetland pony, Cookie, gave her the chance to move through the world without thinking about what her body couldn’t do. With horses, she found freedom, joy, and a relationship that made her feel fully herself.
Those early experiences stayed with Amy throughout her life. After becoming a licensed professional counselor in 1994, she spent many years in traditional office-based practice before discovering equine-assisted psychotherapy around 2010. It brought together two parts of her life that had always been deeply connected: helping people heal and building relationships with horses.
Finding Natural Lifemanship
By the time Amy discovered Natural Lifemanship, she had already decided she wanted horses to become part of her counseling practice. She just wasn’t sure how it would work.
As someone using a wheelchair, entering into a field with large animals came with practical challenges and some self-doubt. Looking back, Amy admits she often questioned whether she belonged in this work.
“I would think, ‘Here I am in a wheelchair. Who do I think I am trying to do this?’”
Through Natural Lifemanship, she found a different way of thinking about those questions.
She explained that Natural Lifemanship made the work feel possible because its philosophy centered on connection rather than control. As she progressed through the certification process, she began to see that her wheelchair was part of her story, but it did not define her ability to build meaningful relationships with horses.
That perspective changed more than the way she worked with horses. It encouraged Amy to look beyond her own insecurities and recognize that her ability to build relationship had never depended on walking across a pasture. It depended on presence, attunement, and connection.
Learning to Work With Her Body
One of Amy’s most meaningful discoveries through Natural Lifemanship has been her relationship with her own body. For many years, she describes feeling disconnected from it.
Personal Immersion and the somatic work woven throughout NL began changing that relationship. Instead of seeing her body only through the lens of limitation, she learned to recognize its wisdom.
Today, she pays close attention to the signals her body offers, using breath, awareness, and regulation to remain present with both horses and clients.
“My body lets me know when I’m anxious,” she says. “We’ve definitely learned to work together better.”
That internal relationship has become just as important as any relationship she builds in the pasture.
Embracing Relationship Over Limitation
Amy has never asked for special treatment. Throughout her certification journey, she simply looked for ways to participate fully while honoring the realities of her body.
Rather than trying to work around her wheelchair, Amy learned how to work with it. She pays close attention to how her horses respond to her movement, her pace, and her energy. Over time, even the movement of her wheelchair became another way of communicating with them. She also adapted the tools she uses during groundwork to better fit what her hands are physically able to do.
An all-terrain electric wheelchair, affectionately known around the ranch as “the ranch chair,” allows Amy to navigate the pastures with greater ease. It supports her work, but it is her presence and relationship with the horses that make the work possible.
Creating Space for Others
The lessons Amy learned with her horses naturally became part of the way she practices therapy.
She recalls one client who experienced an unfamiliar sense of openness while working alongside one of the ranch’s ponies. After visiting family members connected to painful experiences from her past, the client returned surprised by how differently she had moved through those interactions.
“I know what anxiety feels like,” the client told Amy. “But this openness…this is new.”
For Amy, moments like these affirm the value of experiential work. Clients aren’t simply talking about healing. They’re discovering what it feels like in their own bodies and carrying that experience into everyday life.
Amy has approached her own certification journey in much the same way.
Amy hopes her journey encourages other practitioners to see possibilities they may not have considered for themselves. Meaningful work grows from presence, curiosity, and a willingness to remain in relationship—with ourselves, with our clients, and with our horses.
Continuing the Journey
Amy has invested years in the Natural Lifemanship Certification Pathway, approaching each stage with curiosity, thoughtful adaptation, and a willingness to keep learning.
Today, she continues to support clients through Runnin Free Ranch while looking toward what comes next. She hopes to expand the ranch along with her husband DJ, so more people can experience healing through relationship. She also dreams of one day adding a Mustang to her herd and eventually becoming a Natural Lifemanship trainer.
Looking back on her journey, it is clear that Natural Lifemanship has shaped far more than the way Amy works with horses. It has influenced the way she relates to her own body, the way she partners with clients, and the way she continues to approach growth.
Your Invitation
The Natural Lifemanship Certification Pathway is designed to do more than teach. It shapes the person doing the work.
If you are a mental health professional drawn to equine-assisted work and want training that takes the relational dimension seriously, the Fundamentals of Natural Lifemanship offers a meaningful place to begin. As the first step toward NL Certification, it gives you space to slow down, deepen your understanding of relational work, and begin experiencing the principles that can shape the way you practice.
You do not have to know exactly where the journey will lead. You simply have to be willing to take the next step.
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